Since the founding of the Ford Motor Company in the early 1900s, the state of Michigan has been at the forefront of the world’s car manufacturing production. Michigan is home to 61 of the top 100 North American auto suppliers and produces 23% of the country’s automobiles, more than any other state. Currently, the automotive industry supports 513,300 jobs in Michigan, which are 22.1% of the automotive jobs in the United States.

Now, close to 110 years after Henry Ford’s first Model T rolled off the assembly line, Michigan is on the brink of another automotive revolution. The United States is among a handful of nations competing to lead a revolution in the interaction between vehicles, roads, and cities through the development of connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technologies. Southeast Michigan provides unique assets to support a growing CAV industry, including regional automotive and IT industry clusters; world-class educational institutions; private, university, and nonprofit research entities; and established physical infrastructure.

Through the Regional Innovation Strategies program, EDA awarded $247,000 to Ann Arbor SPARK in 2015 to create a plan for the CAV Development Center. The CAV Center will meet demand for an early stage CAV accelerator and, for established companies, leasable real estate surrounding a test track. The CAV Center will leverage the region's one-of-a-kind automotive industry to attract electronics, software, and systems integration firms to test the new technologies.